Tommy’s Coffee Break Calendar for September 23rd

Today it's one of the Sixties most perfect Top 40 hits, along with a Beatles hoax that some of us fell for and a genuine American musical icon born this date...

9/23/1967 (48 years ago today) - The Box Tops start a four-week run at No. 1 on the U.S. singles chart with "The Letter", which would go on to sell over four million copies -- Remember, you had to actually go to a record store and purchase the vinyl, so selling 4-mill in '67 is pretty friggin' astounding, kids. FYI - Lead vocalist Alex Chilton was only 16 years old(!) when they made this recording, which (at 1 min., 58 sec.) was the last No. 1 hit to be under two-minutes long! Joe Cocker did pretty good with the song too, going Top Ten with his cover in 1970.

9/23/1969 (46 years ago today) - Northern Illinois University's Northern Star newspaper ran a story that claimed Paul McCartney had been killed in an automobile accident in 1966, and that The Beatles had been using a look-alike to play the role of Paul in order to not to freak the world out. Detroit rock station WKNR-FM picked up on the story and within 24 hours it was world-wide news!!! By late October the hoax was so well entrenched that McCartney had to come out of seclusion at his Scottish farm to deny the whole thing: "Do I look dead? I'm fit as a fiddle." Fun while it lasted; remember all the "clues"?...

9/23/1930 - Born this day, Ray Charles Robinson, professionally known as Ray Charles, often referred to as "The Genius" and nicknamed "The High Priest Of Soul", and with good reason: Ray was at the forefront of pioneering soul music during the 1950's by combining rhythm and blues with gospel, blues and pop and even country & western! Ray was also one of the first African-American musicians to be granted total artistic control by a mainstream (white) record company. Frank Sinatra called him "the only true genius in show business"; Billy Joel said that while it may sound like sacrilege, he thought that that "Ray Charles was more important than Elvis Presley". Ray passed away June 10th, 2004, at age 73, leaving behind one of the 20th century's all-time great musical catalogs -- Ray kicked ass, y'know.

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"Lonely days are gone/I'm-a goin' home...", xoxo!